Thousands in Mexicali seek shelter

Antonio Garcia sweeps up broken vases and glasses Monday morning at the 99 Cent Store in Calexico, where the manager opened early so residents could buy essentials such as water, canned goods and soap.

Peggy Peattie

Antonio Garcia sweeps up broken vases and glasses Monday morning at the 99 Cent Store in Calexico, where the manager opened early so residents could buy essentials such as water, canned goods and soap.

Antonio Garcia sweeps up broken vases and glasses Monday morning at the 99 Cent Store in Calexico, where the manager opened early so residents could buy essentials such as water, canned goods and soap. (Peggy Peattie)

The American Red Cross and the Salvation Army have been providing assistance to quake victims. Here is where donations to support that work can be made:

American Red Cross San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter Disaster Fund at sdarc.org or by mailing a check or money order to American Red Cross, 3950 Calle Fortunada, San Diego, CA 92123.

Baja/Imperial Earthquake fund at the Salvation Army, P.O. Box 503580, San Diego, CA 92150-3580. People also may call (866) 455-4357, or donate online at sandiego.salvationarmy.org.

Across this city of 1 million people, thousands of residents sought shelter in tents, in parks, by the side of the road, in their cars, in makeshift campsites and in government-run shelters a day after suffering through Baja California’s most powerful earthquake in memory.

Hospitals floors were empty, stores were closed, aqueducts were damaged and homes were flooded. In communities near the epicenter of Sunday’s magnitude-7.2 quake, deep cracks ripped open roads, and many residents remained without water or electricity yesterday afternoon.

Across the border in Calexico, authorities cordoned off several downtown blocks because of damage to buildings, most of them historic. Police patrolled the streets and the City Council declared a state of emergency.

In Mexico, the quake claimed at least two lives and caused 235 injuries, most of them minor, civil protection authorities said. Only 45 buildings were condemned, but by yesterday evening about 3,500 people had sought refuge in government shelters, said Rene Rosado, Mexicali’s civil-protection chief.

A 94-year-old man was killed when a wall collapsed in his home in the city, and a homeless man died when the abandoned structure he was living in collapsed, Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán said.

Many of the people who went to shelters did so because they did not have water service or they feared their homes were unsafe.

In areas south of the city, mud swept into some houses.

Nearly 24 hours after the earthquake struck, President Felipe Calderón stood near its epicenter yesterday afternoon in a farming area off the highway to San Felipe, promising aid to residents with damaged homes and to farmers fearful of losing their crops after two irrigation canals broke open.

“We are going to proceed to repair what we are able to repair,” Calderón told about 2,000 residents crowded beneath a large tent pitched in the community known as Ejido Cucupah Indigena south of the city. “We are going to move forward.”

At the president’s invitation, men and women stood and told him of their fear and discomfort.

“The wheat is going to rot,” one man said, because the fields are flooded and caked with mud.

The community of brick and concrete-block houses suffered some of the most severe damage. The residents had fled, and the streets were silent yesterday afternoon.

According to the Baja California government, Mexicali’s main public hospital remained open and was providing emergency services. But the upper floors had been cleared, and some patients had been transferred to private clinics.

The aqueduct to Tijuana was damaged and not working, but the state has enough water in reservoirs to supply the city for up to three months.

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in Imperial County.

The downtown Calexico Port of Entry remained closed to vehicles yesterday as inspectors assessed damage to the building, said Angelica De Cima of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. There is no timetable for reopening, De Cima said.